Actionscript for Flash 5 dummies: Scrolling a text box II - Page 2

Step 1: Loading an external text file

Hard-coding your text may be easy, but it sure makes updating a pain in the
buttocks. Therefore, we'll be using an external text file which we'll load into
Flash at run-time. Let's get going.

Using the technique described last tutorial ( ...list variables, remember?),
copy your text into an empty Notepad, or similar plain text editor. Your entire
text should be on one line, unless you have word wrap turned on. Now, add "daTextBox="
right before your text. Save this file as a plain text file named text.txt in
the same directory as your movie.

You'll need to make some adjustments to the text in order to load it into Flash.
You see, when you hard-code text into Flash, the program uses certain encoding
entities for characters, so that it won't interfere with scripting. These characters
are the backslash(\), the double-quote ("), the ampersand (&), and
the ever useful single-quote ('). In order to load your text file into Flash,
you'll need to un-encode these characters.

You should replace all occurences of the following characters with their text-file
equivalent: " into ", \" into ", \\ into \, &apos
into ', \' into ' and & into &. Make sure you make these transformations
in the order that they are written, otherwise you'll end up with some very screwy
text. If you're feeling lazy, you can use Notepad's Replace feature, available
from the Find menu. Note that this feature is not available in all versions
of Notepad.

Once this is done, save your text file again. Your text should now look like
this:

plug Before you ask, no, that is not Notepad, but rather
an excellent Notepad replacement by the name of Metapad. It's only 70k, and
its block-indenting options are perfect for coding. Best of all, it's free.
You can get it at: http://welcome.to/metapad/
/plug

» Description:
I created this font for free use. Everyone can apply it in personal or business texts. Its free, but I want to be communicated in case of business use. Donations are accepted to keep the project of free fonts alive! Thank you all

» Description:
Hmm... what to say about this one? It's reminiscent of the closing notes of the opening music from the Three Stooges done in a church organ style with a closing cymbal crash. I'll give this one away gratis, but feel free to check out my free loops and potential upcoming license-mandated ones over in the respective part of Flashkit.